Pesach across the Jordan

Joshua 1 ¹After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun and Moses's assistant: ²"Now that my servant Moses has died, you must prepare to cross the Jordan with all these people and enter the land that I will give to the people of Israel. (...) As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous, for under your leadership this people will inherit the land I swore to their ancestors. ⁷ Above all, be strong and courageous, and be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, but meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous in all you do. ⁹ I command you today to be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for wherever you go, the Lord your God will be with you.

¹⁰ Joshua then gave the following instructions to the scribes of the people: ¹¹ "Go throughout the camp and tell the people to prepare provisions. In three days they will cross the Jordan to take possession of the land that YHWH, their God, will give them."

4 ¹⁹ The people reached the other side of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and camped at Gilgal, just east of Jericho. (...)

5 ²After the crossing, the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and come back and circumcise the Israelites." ³So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at the Hill of Foreskins. (...)  ⁸After they had all been circumcised, they had to stay in their tents until they were healed. ⁹And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the shame of Egypt from you." Joshua called that place Gilgal ("roll away"), and that is its name to this day.

¹⁰ There in their camp at Gilgal, on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites prepared the Passover sacrifice on the evening of the fourteenth day of that first month.

It was the first month of a new year in a new land. But not every man was circumcised. Why was that? The editor of the text explains that these must have been men who were born in the desert. But perhaps the "shame of Egypt" was also that many did not want to circumcise their newborn sons because the Egyptians only did so when they reached puberty. Now a new beginning was made. Women and men, elders and children celebrated the feast of Passover. As if they had just been freed from Egypt.

The land of Judah

Joshua 10 ⁴⁰ So Joshua conquered the following territory: the hill country, the Negev, the hill country, and the region of the ravines. He left no king alive and killed everyone who lived there, as YHWH, the God of Israel, had commanded. ⁴¹Joshua marched from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from the region around Goshen to Gibeon, and he killed everyone there. ⁴² He conquered the territories of all those kings in a single campaign because YHWH, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. (...)

15 ¹ The territory allotted by lot to the families of the tribe of Judah was in the far south.

Judges 1 ¹⁶ From the City of Palms, the Kenites, kinsmen of Moses' father-in-law, had also gone up with the Judeans to the southern part of the wilderness of Judah. They settled among the inhabitants of the area around Arad. (...)

¹⁹ With the help of YHWH, Judah took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive out the inhabitants of the lowlands, for they had iron chariots.

1 Chronicles 4 ⁴ Chur, the eldest son of Ephrath and the founder of Bethlehem.

Judah was one of the twelve sons and patriarchs of Israel. Judah had fathered Perez by his daughter-in-law Tamar, although he did not recognize her at the time. Perez had fathered Chesron. This was the group that had come to Egypt. There, Chesron had fathered Caleb, and Caleb had fathered Chur by his second wife Ephrath. Chur had fathered Uri – according to ancient Jewish sources, with Miriam, the sister of Moses, and Uri Besaleel. Besaleel built the tabernacle according to the model that YHWH had shown to Moses. Miriam had died in the desert, but Chur, now almost eighty years old, was still healthy and fit.

The Kenites marched with the Judeans. From the Palm City of Jericho, they marched to the desert of Judah and the Negev. Hobab (Reuel/Jethro) was there with his daughters and grandsons. Zipporah, Gershom, and Eliezer followed behind the army, which paved its way with murder and plunder. This was the time of destruction, "the Chorma," but now the tables had turned and the Amorites had been destroyed. Many Kenites did not choose to live in the abandoned homes of the expelled inhabitants. They pitched their tents in the empty land outside the city.

The king of Arad also fell in battle, and it is possible that the Israelites he had captured the year before were freed. Later, a temple was built in Arad for YHWH that bore a striking resemblance to the tabernacle, perhaps because there had previously been a tent sanctuary there. There were no statues to be found, only the rough standing stones that Zipporah knew from her father's tabernacle in the desert and the tent sanctuary of Timna. Traces of cannabis were found in the remains of the incense.

Joshua first conquered the south. There, in the tribal territory of Judah, Chur founded the town of Bethlehem, "house of bread," amid the grain fields that the inhabitants before him had cultivated. He named the region Efrata, after his mother.

Gershom, the son of Moses, lived with his uncle Chur in Bethlehem. But he had no right to land in Bethlehem because he was a Levite and not a Judean. He would never be able to build a life of his own there.

A stranger there

Joshua 21 ²⁰The lot assigned the remaining Levitical families descended from Kohath the following cities of the tribe of Ephraim: ²¹Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim (a place of refuge from avengers of blood), Gezer, ²²Kibzaim, and Beth-Horon. Four cities, each with its surrounding pasturelands. [They were also assigned places to live in Dan and Manasseh].

Judges 17 ⁷ Now there was a young Levite who was staying in the territory of Judah and living in Bethlehem. He was a stranger there. ⁸ One day he left Bethlehem to find another place to live. His journey took him through the hill country of Ephraim, past the house of Micah.

⁹ "Where are you from?" Micah asked.

And the Levite replied, "I am a Levite. I have lived in Bethlehem in Judah for a while, and now I am looking for shelter elsewhere."

¹⁰ Then Micah said, "Come and live with me. If you will be my counselor and priest, I will pay you ten shekels of silver a year and provide you with clothing and food."

After some hesitation ¹¹ the Levite decided to stay with Micah. Micah treated him like his own son ¹² and appointed him as priest. So the Levite came to live in Micah's house. ¹³ Micah thought to himself: Now that I have a Levite as my priest, I am assured that I can expect nothing but good from YHWH.

"He was a stranger there," we read in older translations. In Hebrew it says: "He was ger shom." Those who dare can also read the name of Gershom, the son of Moses. Gershom was a cousin of the elderly Chur, the founder of Bethlehem, the widower of Miriam. But Chur was a Judean and Bethlehem was assigned to the tribe of Judah. As a Levite, Gershom could not become a full citizen of Bethlehem; if his old uncle died, Gershom would not be able to inherit any land.

In the newly conquered territories in the north, places were designated in the tribal area of Ephraim where the Levites descended from Kohath could obtain land. Men like Gershom left Bethlehem and moved to the mountainous region of the tribe of Ephraim to find a place for themselves.

On his way to Shechem, he passed a large house with its own sanctuary for Yahweh. The owner, Micah, had done a great deal to gain Yahweh's favor. He had a sanctuary where his son served in priestly robes. There was an ephod, a breastplate for the priestly robes with which priests could submit decisions to God. There was also a wooden idol, the teraphim, which the matriarch Rebekah had once brought with her when she married the patriarch Isaac. And with his mother's silver, first taken secretly and then given willingly, a silver idol for Yahweh had been made.

Gersom, the son of Moses and Zipporah, the grandson of the priest of Midian, was nothing more than an ordinary Levite in Israel. But Micah's sanctuary was a place where the rules of his father's laws were not strictly enforced. Here, it was wonderful that Gersom was a Levite. Here, Gersom was a priest of YHWH.

The tribe of Dan sets out

Joshua 18 ¹ The whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh. There the tent of meeting was set up. The land had already been conquered, ² but there were seven tribes that had not yet been assigned territory. ³Joshua said to the Israelites, "How long will you remain indecisive? When will you finally take possession of the land that YHWH, the God of your ancestors, has given you? ⁴ Appoint three men from each tribe. I will send them to that area to explore and describe it so that it can be divided. When they return to me, ⁵ they must divide it into seven areas. However, the area of Judah in the south must remain as it is, as must that of the descendants of Joseph to the north of it.

19 ⁴⁰ The seventh lot assigned territory to the families of the tribe of Dan. ⁴¹ (…) the area opposite Jaffa [on the coast]. ⁴⁷ But the Danites lost their territory.

Judges 18 ¹(...) The tribe of Dan was still looking for an area to settle permanently, for it was the only tribe of Israel that had not yet been allocated territory. ²(...) they had sent out five of their bravest men with the task of thoroughly exploring the land.

The final chapters appended to the Book of Judges contain stories that took place during the lifetime of Joshua, shortly after the "conquest" of the Promised Land. That conquest would only become a reality once there were enough Israelites to inhabit the houses and work the fields.

            So the tribe of Dan sent three scouts and an army to the coast. But the cities along the coast and in the plains used iron chariots. They could move their troops quickly. The men of Dan were defeated, and their families saw no chance of settling on the coast.

When they heard about the mountains in the north, where small towns lay isolated in lonely valleys, they regained hope. This time they sent five scouts ahead.

The sanctuary of Dan

Judges 18 On their way, [the scouts from the tribe of Dan] passed through the mountain country of Ephraim, where they spent the night at Micah's house. ³ There they noticed the accent of the young Levite.

They went to him and asked, "How did you come to be here? Who brought you here, and what are you doing here?"

⁴ He told them about Micah's offer. "He hired me," he said, "and now I am his priest."

⁵ Then the Danites asked, "Will you consult God for us and ask Him if our journey will be successful?"

⁶ "Go ahead," replied the priest. "Your undertaking is pleasing to Yahweh."

 (...) ¹⁴ When [they later returned with the army of Dan, about six hundred men], the five who had explored the area told their tribesmen that in one of the rooms there was a priest's robe and teraphim, as well as a silver statue.

"So you know what you have to do," they said.

¹⁵ They set out for the house of Micah, where the young Levite lived, and greeted him warmly. (¹⁶⁾While the six hundred armed Danites took up positions at the entrance gate, (¹⁷⁾the five scouts went around to the back. They broke into the house and took the priestly robe and the idols, as well as the statue with the silver fittings.

The priest was still standing with the six hundred armed men at the entrance gate, ¹⁸ while the five entered Micah's house and took the image with the silver fittings, the priestly garments, and the teraphim.

"What are you doing there?" cried the priest.

¹⁹ "Be quiet," they replied. "Don't say anything, but come with us and become our advisor and priest. Surely it is better to be a priest for an entire tribe in Israel than for the household of one man?"

²⁰ The priest agreed wholeheartedly. He took the priestly robe, the teraphim, and the silver statue himself and joined them.

(…) ²⁷ So the Danites arrived at Laish with the images that Micah had made and the priest who had served him. They attacked the inhabitants, who were living peacefully and unaware of any danger, killed them all, and set the city on fire. ²⁸ No one came to the aid of the people of Laish, for Sidon was far away and they had no allies.  Then the Danites rebuilt the city, which was in the valley of Beth-Rechob, and settled there. ²⁹ They named their city Dan, after their ancestor, one of the sons of Israel (...)

Joshua 19 ^47  ...So they went to war against Leshem, captured the city, and killed everyone who lived there. They took possession of Leshem, settled there, and named the city Dan, after their ancestor.

The massacred town of Lesem or Laïs became the home of the tribe of Dan. Gershom, who had been a stranger in the heart of the Promised Land, became the advisor and priest of the smallest tribe in the northernmost tip of Israel. There, on the fringes of the Promised Land, he came home.

Jonathan

Judges 18 ³⁰ They set up the silver idol there, and Jonathan, who was a son of Gershom, the son of Moses, became their priest. After him, his descendants continued to serve as priests to the Danites until the people were carried away [by the Assyrians] [centuries later]. ³¹ As long as the sanctuary of God existed in Shiloh, the idol that Micah had made remained with the Danites.

It really says: Jonathan, "a son of Gershom, the son of Moses." In later manuscripts, attempts are made to change the name Moses by adding a letter. For how is it possible that his descendants still had their own temple in the north for centuries, with an idol in it? Or has it only become strange because the later editors of the Torah increasingly emphasized that one sanctuary—in their time, the one temple in Jerusalem?

Perhaps Zipporah also moved from the Negev to the far north. She was only in her forties at the time. How would she have found the increasingly green land? How would she have found the fresh flowing rivers along the path and the snow-capped peaks in the distance? And what about the stone houses, the vineyards, and the fields? Did she end up living in the house of an exiled family? What did she think of the silver idol of YHWH? Did it represent YHWH or his Asherah? Was the idol worshipped or did it refer to something higher, something deeper?

Perhaps in the years that followed, she helped her son with the sanctuary, with the administration of justice, and with consulting God. Perhaps she helped his beloved with the births of her grandchildren: Sebuel (God returns) and Jonathan (YHWH gives).

Perhaps she went with Sebuel when he went to work as a Levite at the tabernacle in Shiloh or in Bethel—the center of the new Israel where his uncle Eliezer also worked. Eliezer named his son Rechabja: Yahweh gives (us) space. 

What would it have been like when Gersom ordained Jonathan as a priest? Would Zipporah have been there when he washed Jonathan, anointed him, and clothed him in the priestly garments? Did she also lay her hand on the head of the sacrificial animal that was slaughtered? Did she see how the lifeblood was smeared on his right earlobe, on his right thumb, and on the big toe of his right foot? Did she hold her hands up when Gershom pronounced the blessing together with his newly ordained son?

And did she, as Jonathan's grandmother and as priest of the Most High, herself utter the song of praise?

"Blessed be the name of the Eternal, the Living One,

the God of Abraham and Sarah,

the God of Hagar and Ishmael, Keturah and Midian,

the God of Moses and Zipporah, of Gershom and Eliezer,

the God of Jonathan."

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Suggestions for reading groups

• Check in with the group and with yourself, seek stillness/humility.
• First share the story. In the epilogue after Moses' death, people make different choices to worship God. Eliezer and Sebuel do so within the 'official' religion of the tabernacle. Micah does so in his private sanctuary. Gershom and Jonathan choose their own community, outside the official 'church.' What did you read?
• Encourage, comfort, inspire. What choices do you make regarding a faith community or adherence to a particular religious movement? What is important to you in this regard? How important is it for you to pass on what you have received from your parents?

Joshua 9-24, taking your place in the world    

The book of Joshua, if you read it literally, is a terrible story full of genocide and ethnic cleansing. The church father Augustine already pointed out that 'love is the fulfillment of the law.' He therefore believed that the Bible should always be interpreted from the perspective of the commandment of love; if that is not immediately possible, then the text should be read symbolically. After all, Joshua is also a story of perseverance, loyalty, and a new order. You can also look at your own life in this way. In fact, that was already the intention of the writers and editors of the Torah and Joshua: they tell the story with a symbolic meaning and appeal to their audience. This is reflected in the use of (living) times, places, numbers, and exaggerations.

• Encourage, comfort, exhort. What obstacles do you have to overcome in your life, where do you have land to conquer, and where do you need to build altars and designate sanctuaries? We have also come to the end of reading the Torah and Joshua. What will you take with you into the future?
• Leave room for silence and contemplation. Perhaps you will "see" or "hear" something from "God." Like Moses and Zipporah, do you dare to enter into conversation with that voice? What answer wells up within you? How do you test that answer?